If you had to recommend just one 'classic'

[berri]

What would it be?

Going on holiday soon and I want to try something different - it'll be my last chance to get stuck into a book before the arrival of DC2 and I'm aware I haven't read any of the classics....what would you recommend if you had to choose one? Or maybe two, wishful thinking that I'll have time ;)

Both of those are fab books arnie

moby dick.

Can't believe Alice in Wonderland is getting such a hard time - it's fab.

Some of my favourites:
Our Mutual Friend (but dislike Great Expectations)
North and South is fab
The Way We Live Now (great, and less of a commitment than many Trollopes because stand-alone rather than in a series)
Persuasion is my favourite Jane Austen too, but they're all fab and quite easy reading
Shirley is my fave of the Brontes - def not Jane Eyre (too melodramatic and implausible)
The Brothers Karamazov (to my mind the most readable of Dostoyevsky)

Rose Tremain - The Colour. Thrilling IMO

also Down and Out in Paris and London by George Orwell is better than 1984 I think

In order, my current top three 'classics'

Dickens - David Copperfield
Hardy - Mayor of Casterbridge
LM Alcott - Work

The Age of Reason by John-Paul Sartre,or
Down and out in Paris and London by George Orwell (I agree Funnys )

YY to Anna Karenina

I'll throw Sunset Song by Lewis grassic gibbon into the mix too.

A Room with a View and the French Lieutenant's Woman are favourites of mine.

Portrait of a Lady

Wuthering Heights and Persuasion for me, so beautiful.

I have so many of these on my shelf waiting to be read, I pick them up on random book stalls etc whenever I see a classic because I know I will eventually read them.

Also, reading To Kill a Mockingbird made me love it rather than put me off. It is an absolutely superb book.

Moby Dick

Or Crime and Punishment

If I had to recommend just one it would be To Kill a Mockingbird - a book I reread on a regular basis. Anyone who did it at school and didn't like it should try it again, it gains more reading it from a parents perspective too. I am currently reading it to my eldest DC, its gorgeous to read aloud the language is just beautiful.

But I also love Thomas Hardy, particularly Tess and Jude the Obscure (both a bit depressing but so lovely). Austen - Emma, Sense and Sensibility and Pride and Prejudice.

Jane Eyre just annoys me, I want to slap her! But I did love Wuthering Heights.

Have got some good recommendations myself from this thread, have always struggled with Dickens but think I will give him another go, and maybe try some Trollope.

aubergines - don't get me started on Jane Eyre :o That novel annoys me too. Why would you want to marry a man who kept his wife imprisoned in the attic? Even taking into account the Victorian's approach to mental health issues that was still, in my mind, an act of extreme cruelty. Did she "go mad" because she was locked up, or was she locked up because she was unwell? We'll never know the answer to that one. If it was the first, then Jane beware!

So many good books on here. I do need to re-read wuthering heights soon...., and Madame B!!! After I've caught up on book club!

Loved REbecca and Jamaica inn - jamaica inn was quite heavy though.

I really REALLY liked crime and punishment but dostoyesky - I was a bit intimidated by it at first but it was AMAZING!!! So easy to read.

Have woman in white on my kindle, i was reading this, very good - dropped it in the bath (the book, not my kindle!!!)

Anything by Thomas Hardy.
Also The Handmaid's Tale by Margaret Atwood.
And personally I loved Alice in Wonderland (still do)!

I would like to point out that the thread title is 'one' classic.... we can't do it can we. We have all reeled them off. There are just too many.

I Classics.

The Picture of Dorian Gray

Another To Kill A Mockingbird fan. Hated it when we read it at school because we had to share books & I was with a much slower reader. My English teacher gave me my own copy as a leaving present. I reluctantly gave it another go & fell in love with it. I cry every time I read it.

If I had to name one, it would be Catch-22.

If I can name more I would say:
Breakfast At Tiffany's
1984
Wuthering Heights
Three Men In A Boat
The Great Gatsby
A Confederacy Of Dunces

I loathed Jane Eyre.

Pride and Prejudice :).